Court throws out Berlusconi/Mills charges

Last updated at 13:57 15 January 2007


A court has ruled that the statute of limitations had expired for some of the charges against Silvio Berlusconi in a case involving the purchase by the former premier's Mediaset empire of TV rights for U.S. movies, Italian news agencies reported.

Milan judge Edoardo D'Avossa has decided not to press charges of embezzlement before July 1999 as well as charges of fraud and false accounting before 1998 for Berlusconi, sources told Reuters.

The judge also threw out a charge of receiving stolen goods up 1993 against David Mills, the estranged husband of Britain's culture minister.

However the charges stemming from alleged criminal conduct after those dates remain in place, the court sources said.

The trial was continuing with other defense challenges to other charges. Berlusconi, Mills and Fedele Confalonieri, the chairman of Berlusconi's Mediaset conglomerate, were among a dozen defendants indicted in the case.

Prosecutors say Mediaset purchased TV rights for U.S. movies before 1999 through two "offshore" companies and falsely declared the costs to reduce the tax bill. Offshore companies are generally those registered in countries with lenient regulatory and tax policies.

Berlusconi, who lost power in April elections but remains Italy's richest man, has a long history of legal troubles linked to his Milan-based business interests.

To date, he has either been acquitted or seen cases against him dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired. He has always maintained his innocence.

Berlusconi's three Mediaset networks are the main private TV rivals to RAI's three public channels.

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